


Ten for Ten: Mine

by Cywolf



Series: Ten for Ten [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cywolf/pseuds/Cywolf
Summary: Oneshot - Neji and Tenten, because of a mine, are in a mine, and decide 'What's mine.' Nothing but fluff. (Maybe a smidgen of fighting)
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Tenten
Series: Ten for Ten [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890958
Kudos: 24





	Ten for Ten: Mine

**Title** : Mine  
 **Genre** : fluff, even a smidgen of actual fighting  
 **Fandom** : Naruto  
 **Characters** : Neji, Tenten

 **Notes:** (Originally posted Oct. 26, 2006) Written for the **ten for ten** themes at [](https://nejiten.livejournal.com/profile)[**nejiten**](https://nejiten.livejournal.com/).   
  


* * *

**mine**
    
    
    n 1: excavation in the earth from which ores and minerals are extracted  
    
    2: explosive device that explodes on contact; designed to destroy vehicles or ships or to kill or maim personnel  
    
    v 1: get from the earth; of ores and metals  
    
    2: lay mines; "The Vietnamese mined Cambodia"  
    
    

* * *

_"Mine:_   
_Belonging to me if I can hold or seize it. "_   
  


* * *

Their mission is a hunters’ mission - a contract to run down a missing-nin, a rogue from Kiri, a man who specialized in explosives and bombs. Tenten is viciously glad for the chance to go up against him, to test her own skills against someone like herself, and this makes her reckless. Between the two of them they lace a stretch of desert-land with explosives of every kind, ranging from landmines to launched grenades to fireworks that went off to indicate position, until Lee and Gai and Neji – following in Tenten’s wake, more often than not – are as afraid to trigger Tenten’s traps as the missing-nin’s; they walk gingerly over the rocks, and stop flinching at loud sounds because they have become so common.

Team Gai corners him in a long narrow canyon, near the mouth of a large cave; he crouches, as dusty as they are but in even worse condition, bleeding from the corner of his mouth, left arm hanging useless, clothes torn.

Gai advises him in a grave voice – like a man concerned for a self-destructive acquaintance – to give up, while Lee and Neji quietly begin to encircle him. Tenten quivers, tense, beside Gai, who keeps a hand on her shoulder to make her stay still.

The missing-nin sneers at them, spits defiance; a sad defiance for the blood and the exhaustion, but defiance nonetheless. And then he lifts his right hand – and Tenten catches the glitter of metal in it, and realizes what it is– and he is throwing it at them…

She does not think, just moves. A quick-flung kunai hits the scavenged mine with a clank of metal against metal, redirecting it back towards the missing-nin, while Tenten herself flashes forward. Neji and Lee are moving too, and Gai is yelling, and then there is a loud noise and a wave of pressure, and then…

…darkness.

But only for a little while, and then Tenten is rolling to her feet, shaking herself all over like a wakening foal to reacquaint her body with motion and to make sure nothing has broken. She can feel the weapons strapped to her body as she shakes herself down – the spring-loaded sai on her forearms, the collapsible bo-staff nestled in the small of her back, the folded _bolo_ knife on her right leg and the thin whip coiled around her left thigh – all still snug against her limbs in their leather holsters; she takes comfort from that.

She coughs as she takes stock; the air is filled with dust, looking like a pale grey mist even in the dimness. As her pupils dilate and adjust to the lack of light, she can see that the mouth of the cave is almost completely blocked off with rocks and rubble, some small streams of pebbles still cascading down as the rocks settle into place. There is still a tiny opening left unblocked in the corner, through which a shaft of dusty sunlight shines.

The miniscule amount of light is enough to let her see that there is someone else in there with her; a white-robed boy sprawled onto the rocky floor.

“Neji!”

She quickly reviews the last few moments, replaying their positions and extrapolating motion from that. Lee and Gai are (she hopes) safe on the other side of the rock-wall, and Lee should have been able to tug the missing-nin with him. She had knocked him towards Lee, after all. And Neji…

Neji must have shoved her into the cave. She kneels beside him, quickly running her hands over him to check for injury. Her heart skips a beat at the tell-tale wetness near his temple, but there are no broken bones and no other wounds; his pulse is steady. And the gash is shallow, her searching fingers tell her – she uses her extra wrappings to bandage it. That is, after all, what she carries them for.

Neji comes to life as she finishes bandaging him, eyes flashing open.

“T…Tenten?” he coughs, choking on the dust-filled air.

“I’m here.” She helps Neji sit up. They turn their heads as they hear faint shouting coming in through the tiny opening.

“NEJI! TENTEN!”

“We’re alright, Gai-sensei,” Tenten yells back, as she and Neji scramble to their feet and press as close as they can to the opening.

In a short while they’ve established a plan; this is not the first time half the team’s been stranded somewhere, though their first time in an abandoned mine. Lee and Gai will take the missing-nin to the nearest town, where they will secure him and then ask some of the miners to help dig Neji and Tenten out.

In the meanwhile, the two are to get as far back from the entrance as possible; it is entirely possible that the entrance will rockslide.

Lee and Gai leave after that, and Tenten and Neji are left alone in the cave. She cocks her head to the side.

“Listen – I think I hear running water,” Tenten says, getting up to go. Neji catches at her arm.

“Wait.”

“Gai-sensei _said_ we should get back from the rubble, Neji,” Tenten explains patiently. “And if it is running water – sometimes these old mines have springs in them – we could use it to refill our canteens, wash that wound of yours…”

Neji grumps but agrees. The dust has settled so he can use the Byakugan to see in the increasing darkness; by long-standing agreement he takes Tenten’s hand and leads her through the cave. Tenten follows _exactly_ in his wake – stepping where he stepped, because there had been times when not doing that meant slipping off the side of a ledge or triggering a trap hole, having to stretch her legs to match his longer stride – and begins to form a mental map of where they are going. Tenten has extremely good spatial awareness – it is part of what makes her such a good targeter – and even though she needs Neji to lead her, after this she will be able to get back on her own.

Neji stops, and Tenten bumps into his back before she can stop herself. “Sorry,” she mumbles, rubbing at her nose.

Neji does not show he noticed. “There is a small rock pool here,” he says, and dips her hand into ice-cold water. Tenten shrieks at the sudden wetness.

“Ahh!” She pulls her hand out of his and shakes it furiously, glaring at Neji’s general direction – who is, she is sure, smirking. “Next time warn me before you do that!”

Neji is silent. Smirkingly so.

Tenten huffs in annoyance, but lets it go in order to attend to more pressing matters. First, now that they’ve come to what could be a base of operations – as much of one as they’ll get in a cave – she takes out a wad of treated paper and lights it with a rudimentary fire jutsu. The paper does not flame up; it smolders, like an ember, casting a dull red-yellow glow - it should burn for about an hour or so. She sets it on a dry ledge.

Now with a source of light, meager though it is, she unclips her desert-class flask from her belt and fills it with water, dropping a water purification tablet into it when she’s done. Theoretically, the tablets are supposed to be tasteless; in actuality, they leave a faint metallic aftertaste. Luckily, Tenten likes it. She screws the lid back on and shakes it well, waiting the requisite two minutes before the water will be safe to drink.

Neji, she sees, has filled his flask as well, but is patting himself down. She watches him for a moment before realizing she is enjoying herself. She shakes her head, then asks: “Don’t you have any purification tablets?”

“No,” Neji grunts as he turns his pockets out – they are empty, even of lint. “They must have fallen out.”

Tenten sighs. “Never mind. We can share; it shouldn’t take Gai-sensei too long anyway.” She looks at him, seeing that her makeshift bandaging has gone dark. She steps closer to him, undoes the bandages.

“Tenten?” His voice is somewhat breathless. Poor boy – his wound must be more serious than she thought, if it’s hurting him this badly.

“Come on, let’s wash that out. You might have gotten some dust and rock particles in it.” This is not a suggestion so much as it is an order; in matters of first aid, Lee and Neji had always deferred to Tenten. She needs to save the rest of her bandages to wrap Neji’s wounds up again, so instead she uses a kunai to slice off the bottom hem of her shirt.

“Tenten?”

“Sit down,” she orders absent-mindedly, as she pours a little water onto the scrap of pink silk. Neji complies, somewhat dazedly. She kneels in front of him and carefully dabs at his wound, leaning in close.

Neji is breathing hard for some reason. She slows. “Am I hurting you?”

“N-no.”

Tenten wonders at his uncharacteristically soft reply, but shrugs and reapplies herself. When she is sure the wound is clean, she takes out another length of bandaging and wraps it around Neji’s forehead.

(He smells nice, she notes absently as she does so – nice, if slightly dusty)

She’s beginning to draw away when he grabs her wrist – it’s still on his shoulder, bracing her for balance – and pulls her into him. She stumbles, loses her balance, and tumbles into his lap.

“Neji!” she protests, “What are you –“

And then he’s kissing her, and suddenly his breathless words make more sense.

And then things stop making sense at all.

* * * 

It is near dawn by the time Lee and Gai have the mine-entrance fully cleared, helped along by a shift of hard-bitten miners who seem almost as enthusiastic about the whole thing as Lee and Gai are.

They’d left the rogue-nin in the mining town’s jail – to be more accurate, in a windowless cell barred by a five-inch thick steel door – metal is cheap in this area, obviously – after they had stripped him naked and searched him for hidden explosives, then chained him from head to toe – with one chain connecting his head _to_ his toes, as well as the other usual restraints – and Lee had finished off by giving him a precise, deliberate concussion. If he is awake when they got back, everyone would be surprised.

Tenten and Neji are waiting for them when the last of the rocks are shifted, squinting even in the dim light. They look a mess – their hair mussed, clothes askew. Neji’s forehead is bandaged loosely – Lee _knows_ Tenten is better than that, Neji must have done it himself – and they look slightly dazed. Concerned, Lee bounds up to his teammates while Gai-sensei thanks all the helpful miners profusely, infusing his words with the joy of find Neji and Tenten safe.

Lee is talking to them, telling them what they did with the rogue-nin and how they worked through the night and how he had learned a few neat digging tricks. They’re listening and nodding and sometimes Tenten even asks a question – about the folding apparatus of the shovels, and then later about the miners’ blasting charges –but Lee has the distinct feeling that their attention is not wholly on him.

He realizes that they’re both concentrating on each other at least as much as they’re listening to him just as he spots their intertwined hands.

And then he grins.

The grin stays on the whole walk back, and it even widens when Tenten stumbles and a helpful young miner moves to offer a hand; Neji flashes between them and fixes the taller, bulkier youth with the full force of a Byakugan glare.

“ _Mine,”_ he informs the hopeful miner, slipping Tenten’s arm over his shoulder.

Lee almost dances.


End file.
